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Places to base myself for a long weekend in Normandy this Summer

The fellow wants places “Central to the invasion beaches”. In a word, Honfleur, isn’t. It’s 120 kms west between Honfleur and say, Omaha beach. That’s over an hour using the inland A13 motorway / N13 main road, the fastest way between the two points. Slower still if you take the much smaller roads that run closer to the coast. Logic dictates that if you are hooning along the A13 / N13 you aren’t stopping to look at sites. You are also looking at an hour or more lost from the day coming back.

It’s a common enough mistake, people sometimes not realising the scale of the beach landing sites, sometimes imagining that it’s all in a 10 square mile radius. It’s not.

Google a map of the D Day beaches and then ask Google maps for a simple route from say, St Mere Eglise to the west to Sword beach in the east, broadly encompassing the spread of the main D Day itself events.

That’s 100 kms or 60 miles, direct via the main road / motorway that runs inland, so nowhere near the beaches themselves.

To be midway along the line, you need to be looking at somewhere along the triangle: Colleville-s-Mere - Bayeux - Arromanches. Choosing somewhere around these three gives you the luxury of going either left or right each morning, halving the Daily distances you’d have to ride had you hitched your awsome steed in Honfleur. If you choose Bayeux, it’s a reasonably small’ish but historic town, so it’s got a decent number of pubs, cafes and restaurants.... along with its very own tapestry. If the tapestry is “Well boring, mate” the town is conveniently situated on the E46 / N13 main roads, so you’ll be able to hoon off to St Mere or Sword beaches easily. Similarly, you’ll be able cut towards the coast by riding north east, through north west, rather like a fan, giving you a convenient arc for each day’s travel. Booking.com lists a load of hotels in the town, from the Ibis Budget upwards.

One last tip. Plot each day out, so as best to use your time. The biggest museums will take a couple of hours (though some bods will say they take all day) then add on a coffee stop (30 mins) and lunch (45 minutes) and a tea stop (30 minutes).... very quickly the day starts to go, with more lost if you stubbornly refuse (as some do) to take the motorwayand your hotel is now 100 kms away.

There are some excellent and quite cheap guide books and maps, that’ll help you do it. TripAdvisor can help, along with Google. You don’t want to arrive at the airborne museum to find it’s closed that - and your only - morning to accommodate three school groups from Lyon... It’s happened, trust me.

Having the latitude and longitude references pumped into your GPS device (you can check them on Google streetview) may save you some time, too.

Numerous Tossers have stayed there as have I and a friend and would happily go back.

A bit further away? It’s 110 kms due south of the coast at Arromanches. I’m far from convinced the OP will want to hoon a 220 km or further round trip each day of his holiday.

OP, the Arromanches place seems to be coming out tops, if you want somewhere ‘biker friendly’ and ‘safe’. It’s conveniently placed, so book it up quick before hordes of other bikermates get their dusty Adventure boots under the table and onto the bedspreads. Much of the same in this thread: http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthr...65#post4938665

One last tip. Plot each day out, so as best to use your time. The biggest museums will take a couple of hours (though some bods will say they take all day) then add on a coffee stop (30 mins) and lunch (45 minutes) and a tea stop (30 minutes).... very quickly the day starts to go, with more lost if you stubbornly refuse (as some do) to take the motorwayand your hotel is now 100 kms away.

There are some excellent and quite cheap guide books and maps, that’ll help you do it. TripAdvisor can help, along with Google. You don’t want to arrive at the airborne museum to find it’s closed that - and your only - morning to accommodate three school groups from Lyon... It’s happened, trust me.

Having the latitude and longitude references pumped into your GPS device (you can check them on Google streetview) may save you some time, too.

I've downloaded this from Amazon many thanks and the map detail is really useful. Very grateful for your help, thanks again!!!

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